Slothrust’s latest album, 2021’s Parallel Timeline, opens everything up: The production is better, the arrangements are airier and Wellbaum’s lyrics tackle gigantic themes and ideas.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Sarah Shook broke through in 2018 with their excellent album “Years,” a 10-track collection of high-quality honky tonkin’ country-rock that showcased Shook’s sharp eye for detail and ever-present sneer. Both paired perfectly with the Disarmers’ convincingly twangy sound, which spilled over with shuffling rhythms, swooping pedal steel guitar and dive bar grit.

Four years and (part of) a pandemic later, the band is back with its follow-up. Titled “Nightroamer,” it sounds more relaxed and more confident than anything else in the band’s catalog. Here, Shook and the Disarmers dial the twang down just a bit in favor of a darker, more spacious and ever-so-slightly poppier feel. The pedal steel is still in the mix, but less prominently so, and some of the grit has scrubbed away. In its place is a clearer focus on Shook’s voice, melody and emotion.

“I think this record is different than ones we’ve done in the past. It feels every bit as expansive as I wanted it to feel,” Shook says. “I didn’t want there to be a shocking, jarring difference, but I definitely wanted it to feel like things are opening up. It’s a bigger feeling experience.”

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, with Johnny Bourbon: $15, 9 p.m. Saturday, Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Drive, Bend, volcanictheatrepub.com.

And the rockin’ continues Sunday

For 10 years, Slothrust has been building and building and building. The Boston-based band started out as a duo – fellow college students Leah Wellbaum and Will Gorin – and by 2012, they had an album out that offered a particularly raucous, mid-fi take on rock ‘n’ roll. Led by Wellbaum’s snarling vocals and grimy electric guitars, Slothrust sounded like it had traveled to the 21st century from the post-Nirvana alt-rock boom.

Since, the band has put out several albums and toured all over the place and grown into one of the better bands still making big, ambitious guitar-rock. Slothrust’s latest album, 2021’s Parallel Timeline, opens everything up: The production is better, the arrangements are airier and Wellbaum’s lyrics tackle gigantic themes and ideas, from connecting with her inner child to exploring the meaning of life.

And then there are songs like “Once More for the Ocean,” which just plain frickin’ rocks and will make you pogo around VTP until knees are sore and your head pounds – in the very best way.

Slothrust, with Calva Louise: $15, 9 p.m. Sunday, Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Drive, Bend, volcanictheatrepub.com.